It is becoming more common for vehicles to utilize lightweight components and designs in order to decrease vehicle weight, particularly in large, interior vehicle components such as instrument panels. Weight reductions can increase vehicle performance and fuel economy. Weight savings may be realized by substituting current materials of vehicle components with lighter weight materials. However in some cases, lighter weight materials employed in vehicles can have less mechanical integrity than their heavier weight counterparts.
In other cases, certain lighter weight materials, such as carbon fiber composites, can actually have improved mechanical performance over conventional materials. Unfortunately, the manufacturing costs of making vehicular components with these materials can be prohibitive or at least not low enough to offset the potential improvements in vehicle performance and fuel economy. Further, these stronger composite materials are often employed in large vehicular components that have only one or a handful of regions that actually require elevated mechanical performance.
Accordingly, there is a need for lighter-weight vehicular materials having better or comparable mechanical performance when compared to conventional materials. There is also a need to tailor the mechanical properties in particular regions within these components for the particular application, thus minimizing the use of expensive reinforcing materials and maximizing mechanical property enhancements where it is required in the component.